If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the forum FAQ and the House Rules and Forum Guidelines.
You will have to register before you can post. If you find your registration is rejected, please try again using a different username. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

“Some people think football is a matter of life and death"

“Somepeople think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it's much more serious than that.” [Bill Shankly]

Hi all,

This is my second attempt at a career save travelling around the world trying to take as many of the smallest and most obscure clubs in the world to become champions. I don't have any specific ambitions other than to try and win all of the continental competitions with previously unheard of clubs and travel and manage in some small and obscure leagues. Other than that I want to keep the save going for as long as possible without crash dumps and win and become as successful as possible, prior to FM13 coming out!

I am playing thanks to some editted databases from Unknown Hacker and Poop amongst many others on these forums - although I've quite heavily updated these further to remove some problems and issues that I've found as I've gone along. As you will see from the screenshot below I'm going to be taxing my computer to the limit, so fingers crossed it can put up with it (I have tested on holiday for 8 seasons so far with no problems)

I will be starting unemployed and playing with the following rules to make it a little bit harder:

I can only sign staff who apply for roles advertised on the Jobs board or who are recommended to me by existing staff members

I can only sign players recommended to me by staff members or via news messages

If I'm at an Amateur club I will be entirely reliant on players coming up through my youth ranks or unsigned players who are from the same city as my club

Where to go first?

So I've fired my CV off to the odd 3,522 clubs worldwide who are currently managerless and because I'm looking for a chairman who's on the ball and ready to make quick decisions I'll be taking the first job that lands in my inbox.

Well actually, 7 job offers landed in my inbox only seconds after sending the CV out - the chairmen must either be pretty speedy decision makers or very desperate!

I immediately reject the offers from Chesham and Marlow in the lower English leagues, I've played throughout the English leagues in previous saves and if I go to either of those clubs I'll not quit until I get them into the Premiership which makes it a bit pointless loading hundreds of other leagues - maybe later on once I've built my name elsewhere. A couple of offers from Holland go the same way for the same reason and 1 offer from Germany is rejected because well, they're German!

HB are currently plying their trade in the top division in the Faroe Island leagues, they have a strong record having won the Vodafonedeildin on 21 occassions - more than any other team. They also won the league last season and therefore have a spot in the Champions League. To be honest, this team don't really fit into my criteria of being a lower league side, but the Faroe Islands is a really obscure league to go to....... I'm tempted (they also have a cool logo and a good strip!)

Bamboutos are in the second division of the Cameroonian league, haven't really won anything of any note before, but they have a slightly damaged reputation according to Wikipedia:

"Bamboutos were at the centre of a match-fixing scandal in 2007, and relegated two divisions as a result, after club captain Koss Roger handed Fédéral Noun captain, Nkouma Rim, an envelope full of cash on the pitch during the side's meeting. Minutes later, Rim allowed Roger to score."

You've got to love the pure nerve of exchanging cash on the pitch - no shady meetings behind closed doors in the Cameroon obviously!!!

What do you think guys, which way should I go - I think I'm getting swayed by the thoughts of getting a great tan and bribing my way to the CAF Champions League title?

That is an insane number of leagues. Are you running this save on six computers?

I might be wishing that I was before long - don't expect too frequent updates It will probably take me a week to process a week in the game! Seriously though, on holiday mode I was able to process 2 seasons in 24 hours.

In reality I will start to remove leagues in continents where I'm not playing after the first season to make it more manageable and then add them back in again as I move around the footballing world. I wanted to start them all initially though so that I didn't have to pick one area over another to start in. I've also found that I've been getting crash dumps in saves with editted leagues when I attempt to add new leagues in the middle of a save, but if I've had them running at the very start of the save I don't get the crash when I add them back in.

The Cameroon national football team (a.k.a The Indomitable Lions) is arguably Africa's most successful and certainly was the first African team to make a serious impression on the international stage when they reached the World Cup quarter finals in 1990, only narrowly knocked out by England. For those of you too young to have seen that match or the Cameroon teams performance in that competition you should look it out. Along the way they beat Argentina in the groups, knocked out Columbia with a 2-0 win (look out for the stunning goal celebartion by the 38 year old legend Roger Milla) and came within 7 minutes of knocking England out in the QF's. Eventually Gary Lineker got the equaliser for England and then scored the winner from the penalty spot during extra time!

On the domestic scene, Cameroon has a 2 division professional football league:

MTN Elite One

A 14 team league format where each club plays each other twice, resulting in 26 games in the season.

The top club at the end of the season wins the title

The top 2 teams qualify for the CAF Champions League and the teams in 3rd and 4th qualify for the CAF Confederations Cup

The bottom 3 teams in the league are relegated to MTN Elite Two

The league has been dominated by Cotonsport de Garoua over recent years who are also the competition's most successful team with a total of 11 titles

MTN Elite Two

A 14 team league format where each club plays each other twice, resulting in 26 games in the season

The top 3 clubs at the end of the season are promoted, the bottom 3 are relegated into the realms of non league football

Cameroon Cup

FA Cup style knock out competition involving all registered football teams in Cameroon

Single legged knock out ties on a non-seeded basis over 7 rounds to find the winner

Canon Youande are the most successful team with 11 victories, however Cotonsport's recent dominance in the league is clearly evident in the cup with 3 wins in the last 5 years

Roger Milla Cup

Named after the legend from the 1990 world cup, this is a super cup competition between the winner of the Cameroon Cup and the MTN Elite One

Hmmm. This is going to be a toughie I think. I'm inheriting a squad which is already far exceeding the wage budget set by the board, so I'm not going to have any room to strengthen the team. One of my first news items on arriving was confirming the fact that the contracts for 2 players had just been extended and increased, luckily it appears that I agree with the board's view that they were 2 of the key players within the squad and whilst it worsens the wage situation I would have made the same decision to extend. I'm going to have to look to strenghten the squad with loan signing's and to that end I've immediately put a request in to the board to find a Parent club who will be willing to loan out some of their youngsters to me.

Clearly the club is not in a great financial situation, made all the more obvious by the fact we're renting a stadium which is in a very poor state and with a terrible pitch - clearly I'm going to have to rely on a more direct long-ball game rather than attempting to introduce some Arsenal style, walk the ball into the goal, passing techniques! Therefore one of the main aims for this season will be to have a successful cup run to hopefully get some income. Prize money is limited only to the winner and runner up of the Cameroon cup so I'm just hoping that I can pull in some gate receipts by getting good draws against higher reputation teams.

My staff are poor, no point hiding the truth on that, so I'll stick some adverts in the local press for a scout, a coach and a new assistant manager - but I'm not sure whether I'll be able to find the wages to pay them!

In the league it looks as though there are 2 teams who far outstrip the rest of the competition in terms of quality and financial clout - they are Kadji Sports Academies and Aigle Royal de la Menoua - with those 2 looking dead cert's for the first 2 promotion spots it leave the other 10 teams fighting for 1 promotion spot and to avoid 3 relegation spots. At the minute, I'll be fighting to avoid one of those 3, but I hope with a few goad loan signing's I will at least beat the media prediction of 6th..........

My Expectations:Elite Two - First job is to avoid the 3 relegation spots at the bottom of the league. Once I'm secure I'll see how close I can get to 3rd place - no chance of touching the top 2Cameroon Cup - A decent cup run would be great to hopefully get some gate receipts in. 4th round.

Squad:I've inherited a young squad made up entirely of native Cameroonians. There is a strong spine of 4 more experienced 30ish players who are eating up most of my wage budget, with the exception of up front where I'm really struggling for any quality. Outside of those top 5 I've got a number of players that my assistant has highlighted as having high potential, but none of whom is going to stand up and really make the difference in our performances this season.

Transfers:Because I'm well over my wage budget I've not been able to sign anybody to a contract, but I have been able to bring in a few youngsters from the Elite One league who will make my starting eleven. Whilst he's not a world beater I've managed to bring in a decent young striker in who's impressed in pre-season, beyond him though I think I'll struggle up front

Key Men:Goalkeeper:Eric Martial Nzoyem - GK - He looks to be a good, solid goalie for this level of league. Fingers crossed he can perform and keep some clean sheets.

Defence:Jules Ndeme Ndeme - DC - He can head the ball, tackle and mark - that makes him my best centre back, despite reservations about his strength and stamina ratings. He is also the most highly paid player on the team at £80 p/w so he'll need to perform well to meet my expectations of him

Midfield:Alain Ngwompo Nono - MC - Plays across the middle of the park. With good technique, passing and anticipation I'll make him the more attack minded of my midfield triangle and ask him to take the playmaker role for the team. With plenty of experience at the age of 30 and good influence and teamworking stats I've also asked him to wear the captains armband

Strikers:Junior Ndjeng - ST - My loanee striker who has joined from Union Douala. He has got good acceleration, pace, finishing, dribbling and he can head a ball as well. He will play in an Advanced Forward role, most probably heading up a 4-3-2-1 formation as the loan striker. However he is very young at the age of only 15 to be leading the line!

Thanks - I was lucky and given the choice of 4 clubs to partner with from the Elite One league. Only 1 of them was willing to offer me any cash though and given my primary focus this season is to improve the coffers. As a result I'm now a feeder club to Tiko Utd who are predicted to finish 2nd in the Elite One league. I haven't taken any players from them on loan, but the £3.5k that they're going to pay me for the season should pay almost all of my rent for the stadium!!

An unbeaten start

Well the 0-0 draw in the first game was inevitable after all those high scoring wins in pre-season! I'm delighted that we're unbeaten in the first 5 games, but we really do need to turn some of those games that we were dominating into wins.

The 2nd game was particularly frustrating, conceeded 2 goals from very basic errors at set pieces, and after fighting back to 2-2 we were unable to finish them off when they had a man sent off with 20 minutes to go.

Healthily positioned, just 1 point off the promotion places. KSA are as I predicted leading the way, although Aigle Royal have slipped up by dropping 6 points out of 6 in the last 2 games after a promising start.

A decent start to the Cameroon Cup with an easy win away to non-league opposition, where we were 4-0 up by half time. I took the opportunity to blood a couple of my youngsters, including a left hand sided winger who had been playing well in the reserves. He scored after 1min and 52 secs and picked up 2 assists, so he'll be straight into the starting eleven for the next league match.

Next match is away to Esperance Guider who are the only other team in the league with an unbeaten record.

2 wins out of 2 in the next 2 league games and I'm up into 3rd place...........needed a 95th minute winner against Sahel FC who only had 1 shot on goal all game and yet had managed to equalise. I ended up going to a 4-2-4 formationg and going all guns blazing, which paid off after that young left sided winger I'd been talking about before (Atangana) fired in a long, high cross into the penalty box where my right sided loanee midfielder headed straight at and through the arms of the goalkeeper - get in!

I've got a tough run of games now though, away to Aigle Royal and Roumde Adjia, before home against Mont Cameroun and away to KSA - this is really going to test my promotion credentials

Mid-November update

Sat 22nd October 2011Aigle Royal 0 - 2 Bamboutos FCI have to say that I was delighted with this result against one of the teams that I had predicted as a title challenger at the start of the season. To be honest, in the first 15 minutes it looked as though we were going to be played off the park with The Royals dominating possession. However we managed to hold on until half time and after an inspirational half time team talk and some tactical tweaks we looked a completely different side in the second half and stung them with 2 late goals in the last 15 minutes

Wednesday 2nd November 2011Roumde Adija 2 - 2 Bamboutos FCAs in the previous game we started really poorly and I feared for the worst when Roumde scored in the 34th minute. Once again however our performance improved markedly in the second half and we scored 2 goals in 4 minutes to take the lead. Francois Atangana who is rapidly emerging now as my best player had another great performance and bagged the second goal. Roumde went on the offensive then however and we were never going to be able to contain them, they equalised in the 68th minute and the remainder of the game disintegrated into a midfield battle as both sides settled for a point each

Saturday 5th November 2011 - Cameroon CupBahia FC 1 - 2 Bamboutos FC (aet)I made several changes to the first 11 for this match in order to rest some of my key players in what should have been a relatively straight forward match against non league opposition. I was quickly regretting this however when despite dominating possession we couldn't get anywhere close to hitting the target. Bahia eventually took the lead completely against the run of play with their first shot on target in the game, leading me to make 3 substitutions pretty much immediately and move to a 4-2-4 Attacking formation. This paid off in the 82nd minute when we got the equaliser and as we moved into extra time it was that man again, Atangana who snatched the winner.

Saturday 12th NovemberBamboutos FC 4 - 2 Mont CamerounI had been concerned going into this game that I'd see a backlash from my players who I'd lambasted at not being able to perform better in the cup game against Bahia, but it was instead Mont Cameroun who fell to pieces as they were unable to cope with Atangana's storming performance on the left wing, turning 2 of his crosses into their own goal as we stormed into a 3-0 lead. At this point I made some changes to the team and Mont Cameroun came straight back into the game scoring twice from set pieces to make it a tight finish, however they sufferred a match ending injury to one of their midfielders after using all 3 substitutions which relieved the pressure on my guys and allowed us to score a 4th in the closing minutes of injury time.

League Table

SummaryI couldn't be happier with the teams performances, with the slight exception of the poor performance against Bahia. Confidence and morale are high and we're in a good position just inside the promotion places. Our next game however is against top of the table KSA, so there is a good chance that my unbeaten run will be coming to an end! I've also secured a home tie in the 4th round of the cup against Eilte One side Union Douala, so I'm hoping for some good gate receipts to help boost the finances. Francois Atangana has been an absolute revelation in the last couple of months and it is down to his performances that we've been performing so well. His contract currently expires at the end of the season and I desperately need to find some funds to be able to offer him a contract to retain his services - there haven't been any larger clubs fishing for him yet, but if he continues at this level of performance they will be circling soon!

A few of my players didn't take very well to being criticised for their performance in the lacklustre win against Bahia FC in the cup, they've subsequently found themselves dropped from the team for the next game. I'm not going to take this sort of whinging from my players!

December Update

A fantastic end to the year which saw us rise up into 2nd place in the league, despite crashing out of the cup against much tougher opposition.

Saturday 26th November 2011KSA 0 - 1 Bamboutos FCGiven the relative gulf in class (and wages) of the players at our 2 clubs I can't believe we managed to get 3 points out of this game. We scored a stunning free kick in the 2nd minute. The ball was laid off to Ngwompo Nono from the set piece and he lashed it into the top left hand corner of the net from 25 yards out. I was concerned that we'd scored too early in the match and wouldn't be able to resist the onslaught that was to come........ but the onslaught never arrived, we matched the KSA players man to man and to be honest we had a few decent chances to extend the lead. We did have to rely on a couple of great saves from our new young goalie in the last 10 minutes though!

Saturday 3rd December 2011Bamboutos FC 0 - 0 Danay FCThis was the hangover after the party at KSA. Whilst we controlled possession I don't think we'd have scored in 180 minutes let alone 90. A really disappointing performance against a team we should be beating

Saturday 17th December 2011Foudre 0 - 3 Bamboutos FCFor the first 15 minutes of this game I was concerned that it was going to go the same way as the previous match against Danay, we were controlling possession but just not doing anything with it. We snatched the lead in the 15th minute though and although we were far from comfortable throughout the first half we pinched a second goal just before the break meaning that the second half was much more relaxed and we could play our natural game. I think the players are starting to feel the pressure of being in the top 3 of the league and this is just holding them back at the minute

Wednesday 21st December 2011Bamboutos FC 0 - 3 Union DoualaLuckily I hadn't expected to win this game and I didn't! To be fair the game was more even than the scoreline suggests, but in reality I think I made a mistake with the tactics and should have started with a Defensive outlook against a team of this quality and then progressed to a Counter outlook once we'd got ourselves into the game. The one disappointment is that we didn't get any more fans into the stadium than we would have done for a normal league game, so no mega gate receipts for me

January Update

Saturday 7th January 2012Lion Ngoma 0 - 1 Bamboutos FCA tight game away to one of the teams lurking just outside of the promotion zone. To be honest I didn't deserve to win, but I took an early lead in the 18th minute of the game with a headed corner, and despite having the majority of possession and chances the Lions were unable to break us down. Now my 4th clean sheet in a row, showing the strength of this defence!

Saturday 14th January 2012Bamboutos FC 3 - 0 CPSBA comfortable win as we controlled this game from start to finish. Junior Ndeng scored in the 2nd minute to mark his first goal for the club (he was my marquee loan signing who has disappointed so far!) to ease the nerves and there was no looking back after that. 5th clean sheet in a row!

Sunday 29th January 2012AS Matelots 2 - 2 Bamboutos FCI always tend to find that when you've been on a great run of clean sheets, that when you do eventually conceed you conceed a hatful and lose badly. We took the lead in this game with Ndeng popping up to score his 2nd in 2 games, but when they scored from the penalty spot I knew that the chances were they'd score a few. Luckily we managed to put ourselves back into the lead and restricted their chances so they only had one more shot on target which, predictably, went in. Should really have beaten these guys, but given all of my likely challengers in the league dropped points I'll happily take this.

Saturday 4th February 2012Federal SC 0 - 1 Bamboutos FCWe dominated this game from the off, against one of the teams fighting relegation, but it wasn't until the 77th minute that we managed to pick up the 3 points, with yet another header from one of my central defenders. That's 7 goals now from my two best central defenders.

February Update

Wednesday 15th February 2012Bamboutos FC 1 - 1 Impots FCA frustrating game that we should have won quite easily against a team on a five match losing streak, but as happens so often they raised their game away from the pressure of their homw crowd in a match in which they had nothing to lose and came away with a point, that so easily could have been more. We took the lead with another fabulous strike from outside the box by Ngwompo Nono, only for Impots to come out much stronger after the half time break and eventually equalise in the 83rd minute.

Saturday 25th February 2012Bamboutos FC 2 - 0 Esperance GuiderAfter a disappointing start to the season, Esperance have been on a charge for promotion since the new year and had won 5 games on the bounce prior to this meeting and were sitting in 4th place. It was a tight game, but in the end the quality of finshing came out top with a 3rd goal in 4 games for Ndeng and a 74th minute headed corner from Ndeme Ndeme to make it safe

League Table
Looking very healthy indeed, the next few games all of which are against teams in and around the battle for promotion will be key. However this is all in my own hands now, if we don't get promotion, we'll have thrown it away!

Youth intake day

Not a massively exciting intake, although by the look of it 2 of them might one day be able to do a job as a squad player in the team - especially given my lack of striking options, there is a possibility that Donald might get a run out? Given my current wage restrictions I can't afford to offer any of the others a contract.

March / April Update

Saturday 10th March 2012Sahel FC 2 - 2 Bamboutos FCWe were really disappointing today and were incredibly lucky to maintain our unbeaten performance in the league. I'd been warned by the media in the build up to the game about their right sided winger Sokou, on loan from Brasseries, but I was pretty confident that my 15 year old left back, Haman, who has been playing well all season was strong enough to match him. Well Sokou turned Haman inside out for the 53 minutes that they were both on the pitch until Haman felt enough was enough and fell down injured! This resulted in me shuffling my back line, moving my centre back Koumonovi to left back to manage Sokou and bring another promising youngster Kamga into central defence......... only for Kamga to immediately foul Sokou in the box within 5 minutes allowing him to step up and score a penalty! Kamga did partially reprieve himself by scoring at the other end, but Sokou picked up another penalty and Sahel were cruising to 3 points - until in th 96th minute Christ picked up a long ball over the top of the back 4 and clinched a dramatic last second equaliser!

Saturday 17th March 2012Bamboutos FC 1 - 0 Roumde AdijaBounced back after the last performance with a good win in a tough, close fought game against one of the other promotion contenders. Atangana who has been back from injury stepped up to score the only goal of the game from the penalty spot (my first penalty all season!). Incidentally Atangana has been nowhere near the level of performances since his injury I'm hoping that this will help him kick on back to his best

Saturday 31st March 2012Bamboutos FC 1 - 2 Aigle RoyalMy unbeaten streak in the league has gone after 22 games! I could see this coming a mile off, our performances have been getting generally more lacklustre as we reach the end of the season and we just weren't at the races today. To be fair though I had tipped Aigle Royal as dead cert's for promotion at the start of the season and if we hadn't over-achieved so much all season I would not have been disheartened by this result. We're almost over the finishing line though but can't afford for complacency to set in.

Saturday 4th AprilMont Cameroun 0 - 3 Bamboutos FCWe looked a completely different team today as we absolutely battered the team just below us in 3rd place. We didn't create hundreds of chances, but those we did have we converted and we prevented them form having a single shot on goal. We're just so inconsistent at the moment

CAF Confederation Cup

This was only going to be the very briefest of foray's into continental competition as I'm fairly certain we shouldn't have qualified in the first place.

We had a good win in the prelim's against a team from Botswana (although they did give us a scare by taking us to penalties in the second leg in a game which we shuold have won far more comfortably) before meeting our match in the first round proper against a team from Libya.

Not surprisingly the 3 continental games in which we struggled came just before the 3 games in the league where we were particularly poor, clearly the effect of some tired legs and the effects of jet-lag.

Fingers crossed we'll be qualifying for the African continental cups properly in the next few years.

May Update

So, there was nothing left to play for in these last remaining games, other then guaranteeing 2nd place which was almost our anyway.........

Saturday 21st April 2012Bamboutos FC 0 - 3 KSAI'd have been much more unhappy about this result if we had still got our unbeaten record, but this had already fallen a week or 2 ago and as a result I think the players were already mentally on their holidays against a far superior team. We had also just been knocked out of the Confederations Cup so we perhaps weren't as mentally focussed as we should have been

Saturday 28th April 2012Bamboutos FC 3 - 1 FoudreI took a much more attacking line against these relegation candidates, following criticism of my style by our fans - apparently they're more bothered about playing attractive football than securing promotion! Anyway, in this game it paid off and we were comfortable winners.

Saturday 12th May 2012Danay FC 0 - 1 Bamboutos FCBoth sets of players were already on holiday in this game, with nothing left to play for and our 2nd place in the league secured, but we emerged just the better with Ngwompo Nono scoring the winner in the 10th minute. A fitting goal for the player who will probably pick up my player of the season award! He has been rock solid and consistent all season.

Great Job so far. Are you planning on staying on Cameroon or moving somewhere else at the end of the season?

Ah, the big question. I'm always going to have this trade off with so many leagues available to me, do I stay and try to create a legacy or do I go and explore elsewhere.

I had already decided that I was pretty likely to stay another season and give it a go in the top league, but wasn't 100% until I saw what the board was willing to give me in terms of a wage budget. Avoiding relegation on the current wage budget would have been almost impossible, and given that they'd cut my wage I wasn't that hopeful!

Anyway, I'm updating a little bit behind where I am in the game so watch this space, should get a full update on this afternoon.

Season Review

Chile_Paul's Career - Season Review - 2011/12 - Bamboutos FC

Elite Two League - 2nd place

An excellent season and over achieving versus my initial expectations when I thought that we might scrape third. KSA were always going to runaway with the league title and to be honest should bu up competing for the Elite One title next season. Aigle Royal, who I had expected to mount a serious challenge were disappointing however which opened the way for the rest of us. Without a doubt the ley to my success was the 22 match unbeaten run which allowed us to keep morale up throughout the important part of the season. Whilst I was disappointed with some of the early draws, I'm pretty certain that a slip up in one of these games might have let morale drop and results to deteriorate which would have dropped us into the dog fight that ensued for the remaining promotion place.

I was heavily limited in terms of my ability to bring in new players as I was already 25% over my wage budget when I joined the club. I managed to ship a few players out who were never going to cut it in the first team and this created a little bit of wriggle room to bring in a few youngsters who played a bit part in the season and hopefully will develop into first team players

Star signing - Tchapada joined as a back-up goalie, but had a great first season and is now my first choice. He is outspoken though and has been demanding a new contract, so the boards' decision on wage budget next year will determine his future

Finances

The finances have improved steadily all season and ended up circa £25k in the black. Hopefully enough for the board to release the restraints on the wage budget.

The squad over performed this year and had a fantastic year, playing well above what you would expect given their profiles. There are a few teams who have similar strength squads in the Elite One who we will be fighting with to avoid relegation, but we'll need some serious strenghtening to be aiming for anything other than 11th place.

Player of the Season - Alain Ngwompo Nono - Mr. Consistent all season, I can't think of a single bad game he had and he scored some cracking goals as well

Next Season?
I'm expecting to still be at the club (albeit on a lower wage - grrrr!) and fighting against relegation - but the financial situation will determine our long term future together!

......and they were definitely a key part of my push for promotion - the 2 Traore brothers on the right hand side of the pitch were almost ever present in my side - whilst the others were regular first team members.

Aboubakar Traore has done enough to convince me I should bring him in on a permanent deal and therefore will be my second transfer target of the summer now that I've got a wage budget to work with (after a decent striker!)

Footballing News

World Football News

OK, this is the section that I'll use to fill you in on all the gossip, comings and goings and the breaking news stories from around the world of football. I'll normally only update once a year unless anything major happens mid-season

Headlines

Michael Owen produced a major shock when he moved to the Seattle Sounders in a £1.3m transfer from Man Utd during the January transfer window. Owen is the latest of a bunch of aging from the Premiership to move to the MLS in big money moves, but despite a promising start to his American adventure with 8 goals in 17 games it hasn't given the Sounders the boost that they had hoped for as they stay rooted to the bottom of the Western conference

Everton fans were disappointed to see Maourane Fellaini leave the club to PSG in a £13.25m move and vented their anger as none of that money was re-invested in the club, continuing to show that Everton are no longer in the same financial league as some of the other Premiership club. Despite this the club managed to achieve a respectable 9th place in the league and have shown signs of re-investing at the start of the 2012/13 season by confirming the signing's of Joe Ledley, Vedran Corluka and a previously unheard of Ecuadorian - Joffre Guerron. It is still to be seen whether this will be money well spent

Clint Dempsey has been tempted by the millions on offer in Russia and has moved to CSKA Moscow from Fulham in a £3.8m deal. The power of the Russian billionaires has really been in evidence as Spartak Moscow signed Dede for £16.25m, Anji paid out £10.25m for midfielder Willians from Flamengo

Chris Brunt moved for a whopping £13.75m from West Brom to Sunderland, Gary Cahill made a long expected move from Bolton to Tottenham for £15.25m and Newcastle made a massive return on their investment as Yohann Cabaye moved to Liverpool for £16.5m only 12 months after joining for £5m.

Steve McClaren has left the role of Great Britain manager for the Olympics in shame after the team failed to qualify from the group stages. The team had been hampered by the loss of Gareth Bale to injury, however a draw against Uruguay followed by defeat to Australia and Ivory Coast shocked the nation and led to GB fan's protesting and calling for McClaren's head.

Incredibly the managerial merry go round appeared to jam in 2011/12 with only 1 Premiership club sacking their manager during the season - the unlucky candidate was Martin Jol who left Fulham to be replaced by Michael Laudrup. Remarkably Andre Villas-Boas is still manager of Chelsea, despite failing to win a trophy and only finishing in 4th place in the league

However, following the final whistle at the end of the season a number of chairmen made the decision to get rid of their manager and start to build a new backroom team for the start of the next season. Steve Kean and Alan Pardew were sacked as Blackburn and Newcastle manager's respectively after finishing 12th and 15th respectively. Tony Pulis has moved into the office at St. James Park, Stoke have in turn head hunted Steve Clarke from the Asst Manager role at Liverpool to lead the Potters next term. Blackburn immediately offerred Pardew a route back into management following Steve Kean's dismissal

Swansea were the whipping boys of the Premiership and finished bottom with 18 points after only managing 1 win all season. QPR and Wigan also failed to make the grade and will be playing Championship football next season. They've been replaced by Derby, West Ham and Ipswich who will be looking to Alan Curbishley, Terry Butcher and Sam Allardyce respectively to secure safety next year

At the top of the table, Man City had a dominant lead throughout the season, but an awful spell of 4 defeats out of 5 in Feb and March let Liverpool and Man Utd climb back into contention and when City again had a dodgy spell, taking only 6 points out of a possible 15 in April they were pipped to the post by Liverpool with United finishing 3rd. Incredibly there had been media speculation earlier in the season suggesting that Sir Alex might be sacked with United struggling in mid table obscurity, but their recovery to within 1 point of City has shown that once again the strength of their ability to recover and perform over an entire season.

Brighton delivered a series of giant killing performances to reach the FA Cup Final. As well as knocking out QPR and Wolves they shocked Arsenal with a 3-1 win in the semi-final. Matched against Aston Villa in the final, the pundits were giving them a decent chance, but in the end this was one step too far and Villa took the trophy for the 8th time with a 3-2 win

Real Madrid claimed the Champions League having demolished Messi and co in the semi final as well as knocking out Man Utd and Arsenal along the way. It was tough going though in the final and they had to rely on penalties to beat Lyon who had a much easier route to the final, knocking out Porto, Milan and Lille.

In the Europa League, Fulham almost repeated their heroics of the 2010 season where they made it to the Final, but in the end eventual winners Sevilla proved too much for them in the semi's. Sevilla eventually went on to take the title following a 2-0 win against Marseille

Media Expectations:Media Prediction: 11thTitle Odds: 1000-1
My Expectations:Elite One - Given the wage budget I've been given I'm aiming for a comfortable mid-table position to build on for next yearCameroon Cup - 4th round should be comfortable. If I get a good draw I'd like to think I can make the semi-finals?Squad:
I've pretty much rebuilt the squad over the summer with only a few players from the team who finished 2nd in Elite Two deemed to be good enough to hold down a regular place in the first team. Ngwompo Nono and Ndeme Ndeme were both stars for me last year and retain their starting position. Similarly Tchapda who joined early last season and became my first choice goalie will retain the Number 1 jersey and has earnt himself a new contract. Traore who was with me on loan last season at right back has joined the club permanently and will play a substantial number of games. Kouagou has also joined permanently after being on loan last season and will rotate into the central defence partnership alongside Ndeme Ndeme - central defence is my greatest area of concern and the one area that might need further strenghtening.

Backroom Staff:All of the previous backroom team have been replaced, with the exception of the Physio. This almost proved to be a very bad choice as I coudn't sign anybody and all of the respondents to my adverts were poor quality English coaches from the lowest leagues. Luckily I managed to bring in an Assistant Manager from Cameroon, although to be honest he is worse than that Asst Mgr I got rid of. Importantly though in my first Backroom meeting after he arrived, he recommended some coaches and scouts to sign - normally I ignore this advice as it tends to be rubbish, but give I was desperate I checked them out and boy has he found some gems. A couple of them are still players and have joined as player coaches and will be stars in my team!

Transfers:Well if you're going to give me money to spend, expect me to spend it....... No less than 20 players have joined over the summer, 12 of them will be expecting regular first team football whilst the others are potential stars of the future.

Justice Wamfor - picked out by my Assistant Manager as a potential coach I was delighted to see he is still a player as well, and wow what a player! Justice joins on a free from Maccabi Petach-Tikva in IsraelFrancis Ze - the second player picked out by my Asst Mgr - he will also be outstanding for me (I hope!)Moussa Nassorou - I blew my entire transfer budget on this guy (and my budget for the next 4 years!). He was the top scorer in Elite Two last season for Romde Adija and I'm hoping he can lift his performances to play at the next levelBlaise Matondo - my second option up front, at the ripe old age of 36 I'm hoping he'll bring plenty of experience to the sideMidedji Sokou - you may remember my post detailing how this guy destroyed my left back earlier in the season and came very close to breaking my unbeaten streak. Well if you can't beat them, join them - I persuaded him to join the club and try to repeat that performance for us instead of against us!

August / September Update

Well I couldn't have asked for anything more, we have been on absolute fire. Going into these games I'd been really worried about the tough draw from the fixture computer, including two away games against the team that were first and second in the league last season...........

Saturday 18th August 2012Coton Sport 0 - 0 Bamboutos FCWe had set out deliberately to frustrate these guys and to make them to find a way to break us down. We hassled them all over the pitch and were diving into tackles, but our task looked nigh on impossible when Kouagou was sent off for a second bookable offence in the 33rd minute. However Coton Sport didn't have a shot on goal and as time ticked on their frustration grew and the referee was busy noting names in his notebook. In the end we came the closest to a winner with new signing Nassourou being beaten when 1 on 1 with the goalie in the dying minutes.

Wednesday 29th August 2012Bamboutos FC 5 - 0 Panthere du NdeI had identified this game as a key opportunity to pick up points in what was otherwise a tough opening set of fixtures, but I didn't expect to win by 5! To put it bluntly we were brilliant and were 4-0 up by half time and they had absolutely no answer to the dynamism from my team. All 5 goal scorers were new signings helping to turn them into instant crowd favourites.

Wednesday 5th September 2012Union Douala 0 - 3 Bamboutos FCUinion Douala were the league runners up last season but had a tough start to this season with 2 defeats prior to coming up against us. Once again we completely dominated the game and looked solid as a rock in defence, not allowing them a single shot on target all game. Another 2 goals from Nassourou who is looking as if he may turn out to be an inspired signing. I'm really taken aback by how well we're playing at the minute, can we really keep this up?

Saturday 15th September 2012Bamboutos FC 3 - 0 Tiko Utd
Another convincing win and a 4th consecutive clean sheet against the team who were my parent club last season. I can only imagine that these Elite One teams are under-estimating us and we're playing with the freedom that comes with confidence. Another great goal from Francis Ze who was made a great start to his Bamboutos career

Wednesday 26th September 2012Bamboutos FC 3 - 2 KSAKSA have already been playing well above expectations this season and therefore to everybody's surprise this was a 1st vs 2nd contest! Last season we'd drawn away to KSA and lost at home, but we'd strengthened the team more over the summer months than they had done and especially given our recent form I was confident going into this game. We went into a 2 goal lead before half time, but I'd noticed that KSA had pulled back from being behind in most of their games this season. Come back they did, with a goal before half time and they looked dominant in the second half before Ze scored another screamer from outside the area to restore the cushion. KSA pulled once back again in the 83rd minute, but we managed to tighten up and in the end hold the lead quite comfortably. Somehow we've managed to establish ourselves at the top of the table with a 3 point cushion!

From Heroes to Zeroes - Oct update

I didn't expect our great run of form to last, but the last 3 matches really brought us back to Earth with a bump.........

3 games, played, 0 points, 0 goals scored and 7 conceeded. If it hadn't been for the quality of our early run I would be worried that this was relegation form.

I'll take some responsibility for the game against Sable, we were getting a bit over confident and our formation was too attacking, and when we went a goal down I pushed to get back on level terms and it cost us. Fovu and Astres are both much better teams and whilst at the start of the season I'd have been targetting a point from both of these games luck just wasn't on our side.

I know what its like to be outclassed at times, had a run similar to yours in my first season managing Telstar in the Dutch top flight sitting pretty in 3rd after 10 played with my fiddly 3250 seater stadium ,5000-1 title odds , predicted to finish dead bottom and took 6th place last day of the season(with a european place) and embarrassing all the big boys all season with their 40k+ stadiums , you can do something similar im sure

Mid-season update

A decent recovery of form after 3 straight losses leaves us in 3rd place at the season mid-point but the teams are bunched up and 3rd - 8th place are separated by only 3 points. KSA are the shock package this season though and are pushing Coton Sport all the way for the title!

We should really have beaten Mont Cameroun, being 1-0 up when they had a player harshly sent off. We failed to capitalise on this however and they equalised on the break with 10 minutes to go. I pushed all my players forward and with 3 minutes to go took the lead again, only for them to immediately go down the other end and level the scores once again! Luck swapped sides though in our game against Brasseries when we were plain awful, and the sending off of Koutan for an awful scything scissor tackle on two of their players at the same time didn't improve matters - however despite this we got one lucky breaky and managed to slam one past their keeper to take the 3 points.

PS. The fans are disappointed by the less than exciting football that we've been playing - what more do they expect of me!

A great win in the cup against a weakened Coton Sport team who only fielded 3 first team players...... Next up is a home tie against Mont Cameroun who we haven't lost to in the last 3 meetings between the clubs. I still therefore have a chance of meeting my expectations and reaching the semi-finals!

The annual update to Competition rankings have just been released and the Elite One have dropped 9 places compared to other African competitions and are now 22nd!! we're even below the second division of the Egyptian league. No wonder KSA and ourselves have been able to do so well since being promoted, there obviosuly is just no strength or depth in the league

Just as an aside, look at the Premier League table this season, potential for a major shock at the bottom. 'Arry was sacked 10 games in and replaced with Alex McLeish, who hasn't been able to turn around the form.........

January update

A relatively quiet month, as domestic football stopped whilst the African Cup of Nations was on in Nigeria, but a decent set of results for us. The loss to Coton Sport was the only black mark against us, but we played really well and were only beaten by a wonder goal by them. We easily overcame Panthere du Nde who really are struggling and have no chance of avoiding relegation, followed by a good win against a rapidly improving (although still well of the pace of last season) Union Douala.

We also managed to keep our run going in the cup, with yet another clean sheet. We've dran Tiko Utd at home in the semi's and I have a good record against them, so I've got my eye on a first ever final....... The other semi matches up KSA away to Cetef from the 2nd division, so it could be a final between the 2 promoted sides this season?

February update

A mixed month in February, a good start against Tiko Utd (my upcoming opponents in the cup semi-final) was followed by yet another unexplainably poor performance against Sable. We were 2-0 within 15 minutes to weak goals conceeded from set pieces and they scroed yet another before half time. We eventually managed to get a consolation goal but Sable are rapidly becoming my bitter rivals!

Fortunately we didn't see the rapid downturn in form that we did the last time we lost to Sable and responded with a good away draw against KSA (which so nearly could have been a win if we'd have finished better) and a 1-0 win away to Fovu who have been plummetting down the table in recent weeks and find themselves just above the relegation zone.

Things are starting to look mightily tight at the top of the table with 6 games to go. Top 2 qualify for the CAF Champions Leage with the next 2 going into the Confederations Cup.

Youth Candidates

One youngster worth signing up this season with a 2 and a half star potential - does look as though he could become a decent central defender though with some significant improvements to his strength. The aggression rating suggest he may see a few red cards in his career!

Cameroon Cup Semi-Final Day

Our build up this game was less than perfect with a difficult game just 3 days beforehand, which ended in a defeat with 2 of our best players picking up suspensions for accumulation of yellow cards. In addition we had another 5 regular first - team players out injured, so to say I was looking forward to a comfortable game was a long way from the truth! Having said that we'd never previously lost to Tiko Utd.

Nevertheless, despite our injury problems, this performance by my team was not acceptable!

.......so ends our cup adventure this year, I have to feel some satisfaction at meeting my pre-season expectations, but to have got so close to the final and then to lose in this way is a bitter pill.

In another twist, if Tiko Utd go on to win the final then they will claim one of the 2 CAF Confederations Cup places, meaning that I will need to finish in 3rd place to qualify - and given my list of injuries and recent form that is looking a remote possibility!

Season Review

Chile_Paul's Career - Season Review - 2012/13 - Bamboutos FC

Elite One League - 5th place

I really don't know how I feel about this season. At the kick off of Match Day 1 I'd have been delighted to know that I'd secured 5th place, but after that winning streak of 5 games without conceeding I was certain we could qualify for the continental competitions. On the final day of the season it came down to needing a win against Renaissance (who would be relgated if they failed to win) and hoping Astres failed to win against KSA in order to secure 3rd place. KSA needed to beat Astres and hoped Coton Sport dropped points to take the title. Depending on results elsewhere if I failed to beat Renaissance I could finish anywhere between 4th and 7th.....

At the end of the day, Astres hammerred KSA to hand the title to Coton Sport and secure a place in the Confederations Cup next season, and we only just managed to pick up a point against Renaissace, condemning them to relegation with the last kick of the game.

So, in summary, we secured a good top half position, but we had the potential to do better and it is gutting to see both of the teams I was promoted with finish above me.......

Plenty of movement both in and out of the team as my wage budget increased massively. Only a few members of the team that saw me promoted last season, secured regular first team football. Some of the new arrivals, especially the players aged above 32 who were intended to bring experience into the squad, failed to deliver and will be moved on.

Star signing - A tough race between Francis Ze in midfield and Moussa Nassourou my star striker. Both had prolific starts to the season and were clearly both racing to be top goalscorer, unfortunately as our form dipped the goals from these 2 players were at the root of the cause. At the end of the day however, Ze continued to be consistent in midfield even though he wasn't scoring regularly and it is on that basis he is recognised as a top signing and top player of the season

Finances

The bank balance does not look pretty and I reckon the board will be significantly tightening my wage budget next season, we're now closed to £300k in the red. We desperately need to increase our attendances and hopefully our measly £1 ticket price

Squad

An acceptable performance, but didn't live up to the hype and potential shown in the first month of the season.

Player of the Season - Francis Ze - Our goalie Tchapada pushed him all the way and was a rock at the back for us, but in the end the consistency and the goals early in the season see the award going to Ze

Next Season?
I was very tempted not to renew my contract, I think Bamboutos will need a long term investment and effort to turn into regular champions and I'm getting itchy feet with all these other leagues calling me - but after a lot of thought I agreed to extend for 1 further season..........

Footballing News

World Football News

Headlines

In African International football Cameroon manager Javier Clemente was not at all popular with Cameroon fans as his team failed to qualify for the final stages of the Arfican Cup of Nations, with his team knocked out in the final qualifying round 4-3 by Kenya. Ivory Coast also failed to qualify for the tournament which was eventually won by Mali who defeated The Congo 5-1 in the final

English manager Fabio Capello shocked English fans as he dramatically resigned from his post mid-way through the qualification for the 2014 World Cup and retired from football. England U-21 manager Stuart Pearce was promoted to the managers position and after a poor first game which resulted in only a 1-1 draw against footballing minnows Austria has set about his task for ensuring qualification with a home draw against Poland and a comfortable win against San Marino. Qualification for the finals is less than certain with England trailling unbeaten group leaders Ukraine by 7 points.

2011/12 Serie A champions and TIM Cup winners Inter set about a significant squad re-building job, spending no less than £56m on players at the start of the season including the purchase of Robert Huth from Stoke for £11.25m and Christopher Samba from Balckburn for £20.5m. This investment wasn't sufficient to secure a second conscutive title however and Inter finished in 3rd place trailling eventual league champions and bitter rivals AC Milan

English clubs saw transfer records break frequently as players came and left - as well as selling Samba to Inter, Blackburn also saw Martin Olsson leave to becomer Wolves' most expensive player of all time for £10m on a weekly wage of £44k. Newcastle also saw a record transfer income as Chieck Tiote left to join Real Madrid, Papiss Cisse moved to FC Bayern and Hatem Ben Arfa moved to West Ham

Tottenham Hotspur had a shocking season which saw them come perilously close to relegation, and only a great run of wins in the last month of the season saw manager Alex McLeish, who replaced Harry Redknapp in January, secure Premier League survival. Aston Villa who had previously sacked McLeish poached Paul Lambert from Norwich and finished in 7th place, whilst Norwich moved to appoint unheard of young manager Chris Smith. Smith, who had until a few months previously been employed as a journeyman striker for York City in the Blue Square Premier thrived in the role and eventually secured 11th place for the Canaries.

Fulham boss Martin Laudrup announced his resignation, citing unreconcilable differences with chairman Mohammed Al Fayed and a lack of financial support. Fulham moved to appoint ex Australian international Scott Chipperfield for his first managerial role, but this appointment back-fired sensationally with Fulham dropping like a stone into the relegation zone with heavy losses to Chelsea and Everton in the last 2 games. Fulham will be joined by Sunderland and Ipswich in the Championship next season following one of the toughest relegation battles ever, with 39 points required to secure safety.

In continental football, Real Madrid were embarassed in the World Club cup, seeing defeat to Japanese club Vissel who went on to lift the trophy. Real Madrid will get the opportunity to redeem themselves next season however following winning the Champions League after a 2-0 victory over Liverpool. The Europa league was won by PSG on penalties with Maourane Fellaini stepping up to score the winning penalty against Arsenal

In Africa, Egyptian side Al-Ahly dominated their 2 legged final over fellow Egyptian side Zamalek eventually running away with the title in a 9-1 victory. Egypt made it a clean sweep of trophies with Ismaily winning the Confederations Cup after a 4-3 aggregate win over South Africans Ajax CT

It was the end of an era for English football at the end of the season as Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger and Kenny Dalglish all retired from football. They have been replaced by Carlo Ancelotti at Man Utd, Huub Stevens at Arsenal and Marcelo Bielsa at Liverpool - only time will tell whether they are able to replicate the successes of their pre-decessors

In the meantime, my captain has announced his intended retirement at the end of the coming season - a shame as he's managed to maintain his performances in the top league and is a regular first teamer.